local community, local life ...............
Photographs of Glentyan Estate, 1922 Richard Hunter was proprietor of Glentyan Estate from 1898 until his death in 1939. He kept the gardens well maintained and invested in new additional features to enhance his estate. One of these was the creation of an artificial lake, now known as Glentyan Loch. Richard’s son, Charles was a keen photographer. When I was first shown the glass negatives of his photographs, they were wrapped in pages of an old newspaper dated 1922. The photographs provide a unique visual record of the estate around one hundred years ago. The image below shows the rose beds to the rear of Glentyan House.
46
Local history Listen Closely. Kilbarchan. Photos: The Cross and Church Street 1900. Kilbarchan Pipe Band, post-war. Despite the pandemic Listen Closely: an oral history of Kilbarchan 1900-2000, has sold reasonably well. Any profit that it may make will be shared between Erskine and St.Vincent’s. People in the book have been delighted: ‘I read it from cover to cover and now go back frequently to enjoy many recollections. We now realise how many things we forgot to tell!’ The publisher, who was responsible for the layout, was pleased that someone ‘liked the layout, easy to read.’ Folk who do not feature realised how close their experiences had been to life in Kilbarchan. ‘The opening chapter reminded me of my village in Fife.’ ‘There were many similarities to my time in Girvan.’ ‘It was just like my youth in Edinburgh.’ ‘There are remarkable memories from local boys who could see Clydebank burning. My own memories of fires at Thameshaven and of machine-gunning German planes remain...’
Glentyan Loch, and a full sized tennis court, were used by the family for leisure and recreation. The boat house also had a punt gun, used for fowling, moored centre front. A main feature on Glentyan Loch was the Japanese Bridge which separated the loch from the old mill dam which had powered Glentyan Corn Mill.
Authors Colin Campbell and Christine Macleod realised that the main strands of life in the twentieth century were shared throughout the country. Football, pigeons, childhoods, schools, work, the war, prefabs, national service, the cinema, dancing, roaming the countryside and farming were all different from today. Change is the underlying theme of Listen Closely. The book is available in Kilbarchan shops and at www.thirstybooks
Charles Hunter’s glass negatives were given to me by his sister, Elspeth. She wanted them to be kept in Kilbarchan. Ian Trushell processed the photographs and the glass negatives are in safe keeping in the village. © 2021 Helen Calcluth, Renfrewshire Local History Forum
42-47 EVENTS 313_SPRING-APR21.indd 46
01/04/2021 14:16:18
